Grime Noir - with David M. Mark, Andrew Martin and Karen Maitland

Step back in time to a filthier period of history, past the smog-filled streets of Victorian London to the long years of the Black Death, with David M. Mark, Andrew Martin and Karen Maitland. Specialising in historical fiction, these writers put the diseased and soot-blackened crimes of the past under the magnifying glass.

About the writers

David M. Mark spent more than 15 years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post - walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels. His writing is heavily influenced by the court cases he covered: the defeatist and jaded police officers; the competent and incompetent investigators; the inertia of the justice system and the sheer raw grief of those touched by savagery and tragedy. He has written five novels in the McAvoy series: Dark Winter, Original Skin, Sorrow Bound, Taking Pity and Dead Pretty. David has also written a McAvoy novella, A Bad Death, which is available as an ebook. He lives in Lincolnshire with his partner, two children and an assortment of animals. Twitter @davidmarkwriter

Andrew Martin grew up in Yorkshire. After qualifying as a barrister, he won The Spectator Young Writer of the Year Award, 1988. Since, he has written for the Guardian, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the Independent and Granta, among many other publications. His columns have appeared in the Independent on Sunday and the New Statesman. His Jim Stringer novels – railway thrillers – have been published by Faber and Faber since 2002. Website

Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before settling for several years in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln, an inspiration for her writing. She is the author of The White Room, Company of Liars, The Owl Killers, The Gallows Curse, The Falcons of Fire and Ice, The Vanishing Witch, The Raven's Head and The Plague Charmer. She now leads a life of rural bliss in Devon. Website